THE CASE of a former Huddersfield woman who secretly buried her stillborn baby boy in the grounds of a West Yorkshire mansion has been adjourned again until June.
Angela Owen, 46, was arrested last year following an appeal for information on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme six years after workmen renovating Howroyd Hall, Barkisland, made the gruesome discovery.
Owen, who was traced to her new home in Glastonbury, Somerset, has admitted concealing the birth of the boy and preventing his lawful burial as well as a number of other offences of fraud.
Owen used the name Angela Hobson to obtain a Lotus Elise car by deception, between November 2002 and December 2003, and credit services from the Co-op Bank, between October 9 2002 and January 31 2003.
She used the name Emma Smith to run a pub in Oldham between December 2003 and January 2004 and to try to get a driving licence in January 2004. And she claimed to be Carla Geissler to try to get a passport in March 2004.
In April 2003, Owen made off from the Pennine Manor Hotel in Scapegoat Hill, without paying for £325.40 of accommodation, food and telephone calls.
At a previous hearing before Bradford Crown Court Owen admitted the charges on the basis that she had been the victim of domestic abuse at the time.
Owen was not at court yesterday for a further mention of her case when prosecutor Christoper Tehrani confirmed that the prosecution did not accept her basis of plea.
The decision means that a further hearing has now been fixed to start on June 10 when a judge will hear evidence from various witnesses in relation to Owen’s claims.
Mr Tehrani submitted that the Crown had acted with all necessary efficiency and expedition in seeking to dispose of the case, but Judge Robert Bartfield noted that it was becoming a case of such antiquity that the court would have to take that very much into the defendant’s favour.
